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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23926027">Maelstrom</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladyElizabethRaven/pseuds/ladyElizabethRaven'>ladyElizabethRaven</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Andromeda Six (Visual Novel)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, F/M, Fluff</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 21:27:08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,113</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23926027</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladyElizabethRaven/pseuds/ladyElizabethRaven</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Illya's memories shatters the reality she now lives in. Worse, the man she thought she could lean on now avoids her. </p>
<p>June wants her badly... but the shadowy monsters from his past are preventing him.</p>
<p>Will a single conversation close the distance between them?</p>
<p>Re-imagining of Traveler's conversation with June on Episode 3.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Juniper Nyux/Traveler</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>16</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Maelstrom</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Cross posting from my Tumblr account. <br/>Wrote this on a whiff while I'm still feeling angsty from playing (repeatedly) Andromeda Six. Not really my best work, but will share anyhow. :P</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>

<p></p><blockquote>
  <p>
    <em>...Was there something I could've said To make your heart beat better? If only I'd have known you had a storm to weather So, before you go Was there something I could've said To make it all stop hurting? It kills me how your mind can make you feel so worthless ...</em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em>~”Before You Go” by Lewis Capaldi</em>
  </p>
  <p> </p>
</blockquote><div class="">
  <p>“I’m sorry, Illya. I know it’s not your fault, I know you have nothing to do with that, I don’t support Zovack in the least but I… It’s hard for me to separate you from the Peg’asi I knew.”</p>
  <p> </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Illya blinks the tears forming at the corners of her eyes. She has always been a forlorn princess: powerless, trapped, invisible and unheard by anyone except by the royal family. Through her antics with Vexx that she lets her wings unfold and let those pent-up desires out. </p>
  <p> </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>And now, she even hates those memories.</p>
  <p> </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Today just makes it worse. Dark tendrils of despair wrapped around her soul, coiling it tighter until she gasps for air —similar to the first time that she has woken up in Andromeda Six, with no memory of who she is.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>The crowd of Andromeda Six’s help and hospitality brings her amnesiac life more tolerable, but still, she has always leaned on June. After all, he is the one who rescued her.</p>
  <p> </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Besides, she has repeatedly enjoyed teasing and flirting with him. The sight of his face change into various shades of crimson always makes her giddy. Yet he drives her swooning more whenever he returns the gesture. It is perfect… being with him is perfect. And she hopes it continues that way.</p>
  <p> </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>How come she never sensed the gravity of the emotions in his heart—the storm brewing behind his calm, gray eyes? The few good times that they have suddenly gets marred. The ugly truth has once reared its head, making her face the reality that her life isn’t a fairy tale.</p>
  <p> </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>What if she hasn’t tried to find her origins?</p>
  <p> </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Or if she has just concentrated on bringing ice for Aya’s hand instead of getting distracted and following Vexx outside the club?</p>
  <p> </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Or…</p>
  <p> </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>She pulls out of her gloomy thoughts. She is helpless against the atrocities her family caused in Orion. Not even Nerissa.</p>
  <p> </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>But damn her if she won’t do something to reach him now. The man she has grown to love is hurting from the shadows of his past hurts. And it kills her to see him that way. She has to do something — <em>anything</em>!</p>
  <p> </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Only the soft hum of Andromeda Six’s engines rung in the empty hallway. Neither of them speaks a word, unsure what to say, and yet unwilling to leave each other’s company. The two stands two feet from each other, but they are miles apart.</p>
  <p> </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>June runs a hand over his face. His demons rumble, calling out for blood. It wants to satiate his want for vengeance. He has always thought he had it under control. Yet it has only taken two sentences to unravel the discipline he thought he had.</p>
  <p> </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>
    <em>“My name is Illya Peg’asi. And I’m the youngest daughter of King Fenris and the Stellar Queen, Ta’jean.”</em>
  </p>
  <p> </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Why her? Why now that he wants her in his arms?</p>
  <p> </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Like a house of cards, his control over himself comes falling apart. Her words play over and over in his head, forcing him remember what her people has done to her mother, brother, and to the people of Orion. The memories that once inhabit his dreams have now lived in his conscious mind.</p>
  <p> </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>“It might be best you stay away from me... at least for now. I don’t ... I don’t want to do anything I might regret.” he whispers. It has taken every inch of his willpower to say while holding the bubbling rage inside him. She is innocent, he knows that. But the beast inside him doesn’t. It only knows death and destruction.</p>
  <p> </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>He takes a few steps back, averting his gaze from the woman he became so attached. Still, at the corner of his eye, he can see her radiance fading away. Funny, he just said a few nights ago that it is unnecessary for her to dim her glow for someone like him. And there she goes, her rosy pink skin turned drab. He tries to ignore it, but he can see her eyes blurred with tears. She squints, yet he can even see she’s on the edge of falling apart.</p>
  <p> </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Maybe he shouldn’t have opened the door when she knocked.</p>
  <p> </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>He never wants to remove the light in her. The very light that attracts him to get closer to her. Despite the danger he knows he poses, despite his common sense telling him to erect an emotional boundary between each other. Enamoured to the siren’s song, he ignored it and drifted towards her. He craves the glint in her amber eyes, her mischievous laugh, the rosy flush of her cheeks whenever she’s flustered, and the whiff of freesia he smells when gets too near to her.</p>
  <p> </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>
    <em>“I won’t let anything bad happen to you.”</em>
  </p>
  <p> </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>And he still means it.</p>
  <p> </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Even if means keeping her at arm’s length.</p>
  <p> </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>His lips tremble, but no words come out. Maybe it’s time to end their agony… for their own good. But he can’t do it. Pushing her away may be the best course of action… but doing that will be more painful than getting his limbs ripped apart. He craves to pull her tight, though his monsters slithering in his skull will never let that happen. </p>
  <p> </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>She steps closer to him, breaking the invisible wall that has been between them the whole conversation. She places a hand on his chest, trying to reach the darkness inside him. Her light but firm touch on his racing heartbeat stirs the familiar longing he has always kept under wraps. He jerks at the touch, but it’s too comforting for him to step away. Her whole being looks like that night under the field of dancing fireflies. Exhilarating, despite the dark clouds that surround them. He needs pull her close, but the anger that stirs inside him will crush her if he loses control. </p>
  <p> </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>“I’m really sorry, Illya,” he sighs.</p>
  <p> </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>“It’s okay, I am too,” she flashes a wistful smile.</p>
  <p> </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>He gazes into her amber eyes, wishing to say more than those awkward words of apology. But that simple gesture tells him one thought:</p>
  <p> </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>He will be all right, they will be all right.</p>
  <p> </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Hurricanes of want and hate are still raging, but in time, he hopes he can quiet them enough for him to let her in. Today, he only realizes that there is hope for them.</p>
</div>
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